Let me use this time in the middle of the week to play that fun weekly game where I tell you that this site has a Facebook page. There you can find links to all the posts on this site, along with additional “bonus” content that includes music videos and special Spotify-curated playlists. I’m not asking for your personal information or something, and I’m not going to spam you if you click the “Like” button. The goal is to provide another way to connect with you and keep up with the latest happenings in the music world. If that doesn’t interest you, then that’s fine too. No pressure. Let’s just enjoy today’s Pick Your Poison and we’ll take it from there. You might want to put a close ear on tracks from Beachwood Sparks, How to Dress Well, The Late Show, Rec Center, Diplo’s remix of Sleigh Bells, The Sun Parade and The Wild Rumpus. In the Soundcloud section there’s some good tracks to stream from No Joy and Teengirl Fantasy.
Every Tuesday I like providing you with a list of artists that are releasing new EPs or full length records. As this week is no exception, have a glance at the wealth of options that may or may not whet your musical whistle. New stuff this week from Amateur Love, Blue Foundation, Cold Specks, Cory Branan, Craft Spells, The Cult, The Danks, Dope Body, El-P, Exitmusic, Garbage, Gossip, Hallelujah the Hills, JBM, John Mayer, John Zorn, Kimbra, Modern Time Machines, Mount Eerie, Rec Center, Slash, Young Man and Zulu Winter. As far as today’s Pick Your Poison goes, there’s a number of good tracks worth the seconds spent downloading. Those include songs from Alan Watts, Amanda Palmer, The Broken Needles, Twin Shadow’s remix of Hooray for Earth, Jenee Halstead, Leonard Friend, Lemonade and Teenage Sweater. In the Soundcloud section enjoy streaming tracks from Dressy Bessy, Girls Names and Vince Clarke’s remix of Liars.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Class of 2012 update time! Let’s take a moment to check in with some of my Class of 2012 artists to see what they’re up to. First up, Kreayshawn. I’ve been a little hesitant to talk about Kreayshawn, possibly because I chose her for rather nefarious reasons. I don’t consider myself an admirer of her music, but I think she’s going to go far in the music industry i.e. “become popular”. Step one in that process will be when her debut full length album Somethin’ Bout Kreay finally arrives in stores on August 14th. In the meantime, she just unleashed a new music video for her song “Breakfast”, which will be on that aforementioned album. Check that out if you’re intrigued. Next up, Nicolas Jaar. While we wait for him to unleash The Prism, he went ahead and pieced together a 2-hour “Essential Mix” for the BBC. It’s an excellent collection of songs that includes some original Jaar pieces as well. You can download the entire thing simply by clicking here. As for Azealia Banks, I’ve got no real news to report on her, save to say that her 1991 EP will officially be released (after delays) next Tuesday, followed by a mixtape called Fantastic on July 4th, and her debut full length Broke With Expensive Taste will arrive this fall. Have you seen A$AP Rocky’s video for “Goldie” yet? In case you missed it, it’s NSFW and viewable here. Oh, and how’d you like to hear a new Frank Ocean track? This one’s tentatively called “Summer Remains”, and he recorded this performance video of it at home. Finally, for you Lana Del Rey fans out there, you can now buy a handbag she designed for Mulberry. For those who have $1,250 in pocket change lying around. Anyways, that’s all the updates I’ll be giving for now. We’ll check in with these guys and gals of the Class of 2012 again soon enough, including the ones I’ve neglected to mention here. Now onto today’s Pick Your Poison. Highlights today include tracks from Andrew Johnston, Elite Gymnastics, Guided By Voices, JOhn Maus, Markus Mehr, School Knights, Unicycle Loves You and Young Moon. In the Soundcloud section you can stream good songs from Big Science and Castanets, among others.
Ah, good ‘ol Friday. I seem to recall not being too psyched about the impending weekend last week. I think I was in some sort of funk. I took a trip to New York and it threw my whole schedule and lifestyle out of whack. I did get to visit with family and do copious amounts of drinking though, so those were the positives. It’s nice this weekend to get back to normal though. For me that means plenty of movies, couch time, alcohol and seeing friends. I wonder how I’ll feel about all that 10 years from now. It’s great for the time being, I say. Before you head out for some equally ambitious fun, let’s tackle this edition of Pick Your Poison together. I’ll recommend tracks from Blackchords, Enola Fall, Holograms, Lunic, SUnglasses, VHS or BETA, and Videoing. You also probably don’t want to miss streaming songs from Mystery Jets and Summer Camp in the Soundcloud section.
I’m not much into disco, particularly because it had its day about 50 years ago, but I do have sincere admiration for a number of songs from that era. Two of my personal favorites are “I Feel Love” and “Last Dance”, both by Donna Summer. In that sense I found it unfortunate to hear she died early this morning at age 63 after a battle with cancer. She may not have been a personal hero of mine, nor was she a very relevant force in my musical life (which Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys was), but it’s still sad to know a music legend has passed away. Her best days were behind her, but the music lives on and continues to get played in clubs and wedding receptions around the world. Her impact has been great, and that’s a big reason why she’s also known as the Queen of Disco. I send my condolences to her family, and wish them the best in coping with this tragedy. She was apparently working on a new record before she died, so there’s a very good chance we’ll hear at least pieces of it in the near future. Speaking of the future, perhaps the next Donna Summer can be found somewhere in this pile of Pick Your Poison. Probably not, but you never know. Today I’ll recommend tracks from Baby Monster, Doldrums, Island Twins, MV & EE, Physical Therapy, Purling Hiss, and Six Organs of Admittance. Oh, and there’s a new song from Yeasayer in the Soundcloud section for your streaming pleasure.
The last few weeks I’ve been saving this mention for Fridays, but in an effort to get out ahead of it (and because I love today’s set of mp3s) I’ll tell you now. It’s been a short bit since I started the Faronheit Facebook page, and for how much traffic this site does plus my Twitter feed, that Facebook page certainly seems lacking in “Like”s. You certainly don’t have to commit to the site via every social media platform you use, but I do like to try and post a few extras and exclusives in each of this site’s many arms to keep you engaged and engorged with content. So manage your clicks however you want, just know that I’m trying to enhance and educate at every turn. I hope you feel that’s a worthwhile pursuit. For example, today’s Pick Your Poison. There are some great highlights including tracks from Best Practices, Delicate Steve, The Imagineers (who are on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson all week live from Scotland), Letterist, My Great Ghost, The Tallest Man on Earth, Total Warr and Violens. New tracks from HEALTH and The Walkmen make the Soundcloud streaming section worth a look today too.
On Tuesdays I like to give you a quick rundown of what artists have new records arriving in stores, just in case you’ve been eagerly awaiting a purchase. This week’s an exceptionally good one, so let’s get started. This week’s new releases include full lengths and EPs from Alexander Tucker, Andre Williams and the Sadies, Apollo Ghosts, Beach House, Best Coast, Birthmark, Cornershop, Craft Spells, The Cribs, Garbage, Guided By Voices, Hot Water Music, Japandroids, Josephine Foster and Victor Herrero, Lee Bains III, Little,Big, Meiko, MV & EE, Parlovr, Plushgun, Richard Hawley, Santana, Simian Mobile Disco, Squarepusher, Tenacious D, Tu Fawning, Violens, White Fence and Willie Nelson. Also, the My Bloody Valentine remastered catalogue is out today too, in case you don’t already own it/want a slightly tweaked and updated copy. In terms of today’s edition of Pick Your Poison, I do have a few recommendations for you. To start, you might enjoy tracks from Azealia Banks, John Butler Trio, Milkman, The Modern Airline, Rainer & Calexico, and XOV. Oh, and lest I forget, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside will be playing at The Hideout in Chicago with Dark Dark Dark one week from today. Listen to a song from them below, and buy a ticket to that show here. In the Soundcloud section I absolutely recommend that you stream tracks from Oneohtrix Point Never and Nigel Godrich’s music project Ultraista. Wavves’ remix of Mr. Little Jeans is pretty solid too.
Hey, welcome back to Monday. I hope your Mother’s Day went well and that you either spent some time with or spent some time talking with your mother, assuming she’s still alive/part of your life. My Mother’s Day was spent on vacation in New York this past weekend with my extended family. My parents and grandparents were in search of a cool place to eat dinner that night. Keeping in mind I had zero influence over their decision, we unwittingly wandered into Williamsburg, and stumbled upon this hole in the wall place that I think they chose because of the name or maybe they’d heard of it on some TV show. Either way, the place was hipster central, complete with young people wearing fedoras and floral print dresses, old-timey black and white photos from the 1800s all over the walls, and sunflowers in mason jars. The Postal Service played on the restaurant speakers one minute, and Johnny Cash the next. Keeping in mind I don’t call myself a hipster, nor would I advocate for the term to be used on anyone, I’ll just say this about the unnamed restaurant: the food was great, as was the atmosphere. I fell harder than I’ve ever fallen for New York thanks to that one dining experience. The amusing thing is it was a place I’d go in a heartbeat on my own or with some friends, but I’d never think of taking my parents, let alone grandparents, there. Everyone seemed to like it quite a bit, though none more than me. Thanks NYC, for making another great memory for me. Ironically enough I was only in NYC for that day, the rest of my time was spent in Long Island for a wedding. I’m super happy to be back though, and am doing my best to catch up with the piles of emails and other music submissions I’ve gotten the last few days. Please bear with me as I’m overwhelmed at the moment. The site returns to 100% normal, hopefully with a few album reviews, tomorrow. For now, thanks for reading. Pick Your Poison recommendations today come from 2:54, Chicago’s own Al Scorch, Fergus + Geronimo, Ladyhawke, Onuinu, Plushgun, Pond and Superhumanoids.
Sigh. It’s Friday, and another week has wrapped up. I don’t know why, but I’m just not quite in a weekend sort of mood right now. Perhaps it’s because I’m headed out to New York for a few days and won’t have the chance to really enjoy it. It’s not a business trip, but fun, touristy stuff is sort of out of the question. The last time I was in NYC was a few years ago for CMJ, and while I didn’t do any tourist stuff then, at least I was bouncing from concert venue to concert venue around the city seeing great live music. This time I’ll be treated to a wedding, which is a happy occasion, but every other day will be spent with my extended family. That translates to about 20 people, meaning getting around and going anywhere will be a huge hassle. Even eating at a restaurant will likely be a whole affair. Maybe I’ll try to slip away and explore the city a bit under cover of darkness. I’ll let you know how it goes. That aside, I’d like to also remind you as I do weekly that Faronheit has a Facebook page. I’d super appreciate it if you’d click the “Like” button over there. As for your weekend-starting Pick Your Poison, I’ll give a thumbs up to tracks from Frenetics, Night Noise Team, Oberhofer (covering Kanye West), Riverboat Gamblers, Tassels, and White Rabbits (performing their track “I’m Not Me” in Spanish!). The Soundcloud section is great too, with streaming songs from Dana Buoy, Guillemots, and Mister Lies. Have a great weekend!
It’s been a few days, but I’d like to spend this intro talking briefly about Tom Gabel of the punk band Against Me!. I’m assuming you’ve heard already, but in case you haven’t, Gabel announced earlier this week that he is going to be changing genders via hormones and treatments. He’ll also be taking the name Laura Jane Grace. This isn’t a stunt or something done for publicity. Like some people, Gabel suffers from gender dysphoria, in which a person believes he or she should have been born the opposite gender. The age old statement of being a ____ living in a _____’s body. Anyways, there’s a whole article about his transformation in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, so check that out if you’re interested in learning more. I’ve not yet read the full article, but it reportedly also explains what this means for the future of Against Me!. For somebody that has such a masculine voice, it’ll be interesting to see how this gender adjustment changes things. If you’d got some thoughts and would like to weigh in on this, feel free to do so in the comments section. Onto today’s Pick Your Poison. Highlights include tracks from Family Band, Giant Giant Sand, Junk Culture, Old Bricks, Sailor & I and SebastiAn’s remix of Van She. In the Soundcloud section don’t miss streaming songs from Four Tet, Teen Daze and The Walkmen.
It’s the middle of the week and ever-closer to the middle of May, but my sights are shifting towards summer and fall already. It’ll be music festival season soon enough, and there are some great choices for you out there depending on where you live or are willing to travel. One that’s really worth pointing out any given year but especially this year is the Pygmalion Music Festival. A bit smaller than your Lollapaloozas or your Pitchfork Music Festivals, Pygmalion takes place in Champaign-Urbana, IL, about 3 hours south of Chicago and home to the University of Illinois aka my alma mater. This year’s fest takes place from September 27-29 and is scattered across the many concert venues, art galleries and open spaces in and around Champaign-Urbana. This year’s lineup is about halfway announced and already includes the following artists: Grizzly Bear, Dinosaur Jr., Cloud Nothings, Tennis, Lotus Plaza, Frankie Rose, Willis Earl Beal, Hospitality, Julia Holter, Craft Spells, Oh No Oh My, The Dirty Feathers, New Ruins, Headlights offshoot Psychic Twin, and many more. Great so far, with plenty more greatness to come, including at least one more headlining act. A 3-day pass granting you entry to all shows is currently available for purchase at the low, low price of $75, with the price eventually “skyrocketing” to a ludicrously expensive $85. Trust me, it’s worth it. For more information and a way to buy tickets, simply click this link. Okay, now onwards to today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. I’ll advise you to check out tracks from A Lull, Big Wave Riders, King Tuff, Marissa Nadler, The Olivia Tremor Control, Skatan and State Faults. In the Soundcloud section, don’t miss streaming songs from CocoRosie, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Passion Pit.
On Tuesdays I like to give you a quick summation of what artists are releasing new material each week, and this week is no different. As usual, please be aware my listing of these artists does not indicate a tacit endorsement of their music or new album/EP, This is me just telling you what’s out there. This week you’ll find new music from Alex Clare, Carina Round, Damon Albarn, Dana Buoy, Dead Mellotron, Greg Laswell, Here We Go Magic, Keane, Led Er Est, Matt Skiba and the Sekrets, OFF!, PS I Love You, Royal Headache, S. Carey, Silversun Pickups, Sleep Party People, Turing Machine and Virals. As far as today’s Pick Your Poison goes, there are a few tracks I can endorse in good confidence. Be sure to download songs from Chew Lips, The Corduroy Road, Eric Copeland, Hounds, Hunx, and Tu Fawning. Grimes’ remix of Cadence Weapon is great too, as is Keep Shelly in Athens’ remix of Leisure. Oh, and if you’re a Dispatch fan (I know many), they’ve got a new track up for download below. In the Soundcloud section, stream good stuff from Lazer Sword and Variety Lights, along with Active Child’s well done remix of Julia Stone.
On Friday I made brief mention of the death of Adam Yauch aka MCA from the Beastie Boys. Today I’d like to talk about it for a moment more. My relationship with the Beastie Boys has always been a fascinating one. My admiration for those three guys knows no end, but I’ve also gone through fits where I quite disliked their music. I really didn’t get into them until the late 90’s, around the release of Hello Nasty. The song and video for “Intergalactic” struck me so hard that I memorized the every verse and would often trade lines with my friends just like they do in the track. After about six months of hearing it nonstop on the radio, I grew tired of it and that record. A few years later I’d really dive into their back catalogue and truly discover the magic of those first three albums. This bled into the release of To the 5 Boroughs in 2004, which I wound up liking for about 5 minutes before going back to the early stuff. Eventually like with most artists I moved on to other things and other albums. Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2never quite shined the way I hoped it would when it was released last year, and it didn’t help that MCA’s cancer battle had delayed it. Word had come around that he was getting better though, and some even said he was cancer-free after plenty of treatment, though those reports were later corrected. Many, including myself, thought his cancer was either in remission or right close to it, and the Beastie Boys would tour around their latest record. As we know now, the cancer was not in remission and the treatments weren’t quite enough to keep MCA alive for long. I want to wish the Yauch family and close friends my deepest condolences on the loss. The music world has clearly felt it too, and the future of the Beastie Boys appears to be equally as grim. When any group loses a principle member it can be difficult or impossible to carry on. MCA’s voice was essential to the Beastie Boys, and to replace him wouldn’t feel right (at least not now). Perhaps a few years down the road they’ll pull a Snoop & Dre or a TLC and tour with a hologram of their departed friend and bandmate. Such sadness. Let me try and lighten the mood with a little bit of Pick Your Poison. This is an extra large edition for all you mp3 gluttons out there. Please be sure to check out tracks from Arc In Round, Meyhem Lauren, RAC, Superhumanoids, Turbo Fruits and Wizards of Time. In the Soundcloud section, you’ll want to stream songs from Arrange and Wintersleep.
As it is Friday, consider this your weekly reminder that Faronheit has a Facebook page. I keep forgetting to mention it during the week, which I suppose is why the start of the weekend always seems to get that mention. All the posts on the site appear there, along with some extras and exclusives as well. With the passing of the Beastie Boys’ MCA today, which is a genuine tragedy and the loss of a great talent, I posted a link to the “Sabotage” video. Of course, I’m sure thousands of other people posted and watched that very same video today as well. Still, it’s little things like that you won’t get on the day-to-day of this site. So head to Facebook and click the “Like” button. I thank you very much for doing so. There are quite a few good moments in today’s Pick Your Poison, so let’s talk about those right now. Cary Kanno is a Chicago artist whose music has been featured on a number of national and international outlets. His new record Changes looks to be a fascinating one and perhaps his best yet. Check out “Take Me Away” below. Ditt Inre is a great electronica duo from Stockholm, and they’ve got a gorgeous new EP coming out at the end of the month. I’m really loving the track from them featured below. Other notables include songs from Edmund II, Here We Go Magic, Katie Kate, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library and Tiger High. In the Soundcloud section be sure to stream tracks from 2:54 and The Murder Barn. Have a great weekend!
On occasion I like to give a brief reminder for the uninitiated as to what Pick Your Poison is all about. In a nutshell, the idea behind Pick Your Poison is to provide everyone with the chance to discover their new favorite artists. While I could carefully curate this large list of songs down to about 2-3 each day, who am I to tell you what to like? I listen to everything that gets sent my way, but just because something sounds good to my ears doesn’t mean it’ll sound as good to yours. On the flip side to that, I might hate a song that you love. Different strokes for different folks. So I hope you test and sample these mp3s and audio streams and discover something new and great, whether I recommend it or not. Today’s highlights include tracks from Anna Ternheim, Black Manila, Homelife, Howth, The Sights, Sophie Auster, and The Stanleys. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to stream tracks from Blaqstarr, DIIV (formerly known as DIVE), and Is And Of The.
